96 WRYNECK. 



The Green Woodpecker is very common in Herefordshire, 

 and he usually forms an object of interest and admiration, in every 

 walk through the wooded districts of the county. He builds more 

 frequently in the ash, or api)le tree, than in the beech, and his 

 nest is often shown by the chips lying beneath, and at the foot of 

 the tree. His food consists of spiders, ants and their eggs, timber 

 haunting beetles, chrysalides, slugs, worms, and grubs of all kinds. 

 It will also sometimes take corn, oats, barley, or acorns. Bechstein 

 states that it eats nuts and meat in confinement. 



And Woodpeckers explore the sides 

 Of rugged oaks for worms. 



CowPER — On a Mischievous Bull. 



Eap, rap, rap, rap, I hear thy knocking bill, 

 Then thy strange outcry when the woods are still, 

 " Thus am I ever labouring for my bread, 

 And thus give thanks to find my table spread. " 



Montgomery— ^M'cZs. 



[Genus — Colaptes.] 



[CoLAPTES AURATUS — Goldcn-winged Woodpecker.] 



Amesbury, Wiltshire, in 1836. 



Genus^-IYNX. 

 lYNX TORQUILLA— Wryneck. 



A regular summer visitant to Herefordshire, and pretty generally 

 distributed throughout the county, but varying in numbers. It arrives 

 usually a little before or with the Cuckoo, and hence gets the name 

 of "Cuckoo's Mate." It is a solitary bird in its habits, rarely 

 associating even with its own mate, and is no great climber, though 

 it has the Woodpecker's foot, with two toes before and two 

 behind. During the spring months its monotonous cry of " Que, 

 que, que," many times rapidly repeated, rather like that of the 

 Kestrel, draws attention to it, and if carefully approached the bird 

 may be seen perched on the branch of a tree. The Wryneck 

 builds in the hole of a tree, and may easily be caught there, if the 



